Chinese technology giant Huawei has announced that thanks to "unprecedented global sales" of its new flagship smartphones, the P9 and P9 Plus, its global smartphone market share has grown to 8.5 percent.

Global shipments of the two devices surpassed 2.6 million within the first six weeks of their launch in April.

On average, sales of the P9 are already 130 percent higher than those of its preceding flagship, the P8. In France, sales of the P9 are 1,000 percent higher; in the United Kingdom, sales are 300 percent higher; and in Finland and Poland, sales are 400 percent higher than those attained by the P8.

"These high-end devices are attracting more fans than ever before, who want to use the latest and most innovative smartphone technology. When consumers around the world are lining up to be the first to buy Huawei's flagship smartphones, as they have for the P9 and P9 Plus, it's clear the appeal of our devices is universal."

The P9 features a 5.2-inch FHD screen, a 64-bit Huawei Kirin 955 display, an octa-core processor, either 3GB of RAM or 4GB of RAM, a dual 12MP rear-facing camera, an 8MP front-facing camera, a 3,000mAh battery, and runs Android 6.0, while the P9 Plus has a 5.5-inch FHD screen, a 64-bit Huawei Kirin 955 display, an octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, a dual 12MP rear-facing camera, an 8MP front-facing camera, a 3,400mAh battery, and also runs Android 6.0.

For the first quarter of 2016, Huawei said it shipped 28.3 million units globally -- a jump of 64 percent from the number shipped in the same quarter for 2015.

Described as "a major highlight" of the tech giant's results, its consumer business grew by 73 percent over the year to reach 129.1 billion yuan ($19.9 billion) due to the increasing popularity of its handsets.

Kantar has also published its latest stats on operating system sales for the three months ending April 2016, revealing that Android is continuing to grow.

In Europe's five biggest markets -- Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Spain -- Android made up 76 percent of smartphone sales, up 5.8 percentage points year over year; in the United States, Android phones accounted for 67.6 percent of smartphone sales, up 5.2 percent; in China, Android accounted for 78.8 percent of sales, up 4.8 percent; in Australia, it accounted for 64 percent of sales, up 9.6 percent; and in Japan, it made up 55.7 percent of sales, up 4.1 percentage points.

"Android's gains continued in several regions including the EU5, US, and China, but the rate of growth has slowed," said Lauren Guenveur, consumer insight director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

iOS accounted for 30.7 percent of sales in the US for the quarter, down by 2.5 percent year on year; 20.1 percent in China, down 4.4 percentage points; 32.7 percent in Australia, down 3.6 percent; 43.2 percent in Japan, down 2.4 percent; and 18.3 percent in the EU5, down 1 percent.

Windows Phone contributed to just 1.3 percent of sales in the US, down 2.5 percentage points; 0.7 percent of sales in China, down 0.3 percent; 2.8 percent in Australia, down 4.8 percent; 0.1 percent in Japan, down 0.1 percent; and 4.8 percent in the EU5, down 4.5 percentage points.

"In Europe and the US, the smartphone market is approaching saturation, and future successes for either of the two dominant ecosystems will come chiefly from drawing customers away from the other," Guenveur added.

"With Windows phones exiting the market, this battle will only intensify. For Android-Google and iOS-Apple, this will mean not only looking to new markets where smartphone penetration has not yet peaked, such as India, and Latin America, but also to new services and products."

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